The purpose of this program is to provide training for young investigators committed to a career in investigative gastroenterology. The program will recruit two trainees per year for two or three years of research training. Trainees will be MDs, MD-PhDs who have finished their clinical and/or graduate training and are seeking research training in gastroenterology. Training will consist primarily of mentored research that will provide intense hands-on experience in research methods and experimental design, techniques of data collection, data interpretation including appropriate statistical analysis and preparation of research results for presentation and publication. Trainees will be supervised by experienced research mentors with a wide range of interests and expertise from basic cellular and molecular biology to clinical research. A training committee composed of Drs. Lamont, Mercurio, Terhorst, and one or two other training faculty will monitor each trainee's research progress. A rich menu of didactic courses, seminars and conferences will also be provided. The major areas of research available for training include: 1) Pathophysiology of intestinal inflammation and infection, 2.) Immune mechanisms of inflammatory bowel disease, 3.) Cellular and molecular abnormalities in intestinal cancer, 4.) Structure and function of intestinal glycoproteins, 5.) Receptor biology in hepatic and intestinal diseases and 6.) Mucosal immunity of the gastrointestinal tract. The training program will take advantage of the outstanding GI research base within the GI division and in other laboratories in the Department of Medicine, Surgery and Pathology. The training program will also benefit from the availability of a well organized and funded Clinical Research Center at this hospital, as well as the close proximity of two Digestive Disease Centers, one at Harvard Medical School and a second at Massachusetts General Hospital.